Lineages of state fragility : rural civil society in Guinea-Bissau / Joshua B. Forrest.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Forrest, Joshua.

Contributor:

Sabin W. Colton, Jr., Memorial Fund.

Series:

Western African studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Civil society--Guinea-Bissau.

Civil society.

Sociology, Rural--Guinea-Bissau.

Sociology, Rural.

Political stability--Guinea-Bissau.

Political stability.

Legitimacy of governments--Guinea-Bissau.

Legitimacy of governments.

Guinea-Bissau.

Physical Description:

xii, 312 pages : maps ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Athens : Ohio University Press, 2003.

Summary:

In Guinea-Bissau, as elsewhere in Africa, there is a disjuncture between the central state and rural civil society. It is this significant and overlooked aspect of Guinea-Bissau's political evolution -- the continuing ability of rural civil society to evade and thwart state power -- that is at the heart of Joshua B. Forrest's Lineages of State Fragility. Forrest argues that despite European influences, the contemporary fragility of African states can be fully appreciated only by examining the indigenous social context in which these states evolved. Focusing on Guinea-Bissau, Forrest exposes the emergence of a strong and adaptable "rural civil society" that can be traced back to precolonial times.

Lineages of State Fragility analyzes the social, political, and military experiences of rural civil society and villagers' success in maintaining their autonomy. Forrest identifies interethnic social and military practices that became entrenched in rural social structures and continued to evolve through the colonial period, enabling Guinea-Bissauans to resist state predation. Lineages of State Fragility offers an unorthodox explanation of African politics by tracing direct social links among the precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial periods and affirms the role of rural actors in determining present-day political outcomes.

Based on remarkably extensive research conducted in archives in Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, and Portugal, Lineages of State Fragility represents a new approach to appreciating the historical basis of political change in Africa.

Contents:

Introduction: The Origins of State Fragility 1

Part 1 Precolonial Polities and the Afro-European Encounter

1. Indigenous Polities and Intersocietal Relations in Precolonial Guinea-Bissau 27

2. Overview of Portuguese-African Political Relations and Warfare, 1446-1890 45

3. African Kingdoms at War, Changing Fulbe Alliances, and Portuguese Aggression, 1840s-1910 64

Part 2 Vanquished State, Terrorist State

4. The Vanquished State: Multiethnic Resistance and the Great Siege of Bissau, 1890s-1909 85

5. The Terrorist State: Conquest through Mercenary Pillage 105

Part 3 The "Settled" Colonial Period

6. Military Resistance to State Building, 1923-1950 127

7. Sociocultural Aspects of a Strong Rural Civil Society, 1920-1960 142

8. The Colonial State and the Informal Economic Sector 160

Part 4 War and the Postcolonial State

9. Rural Civil Society's Multiethnic Mobilization for Independence 181

10. Postcolonial Legacies: Weak State, Strong Civil Society 205

11. The Postcolonial State, the Economy, and Renewed War 222

12. Conclusions: Guinea-Bissau in Comparative Perspective 233.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 301-306) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Sabin W. Colton, Jr., Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

0821414909

OCLC:

51264491